California's landmark decision to establish the nation's largest network of marine reserves did not violate state law and will be allowed to stand, a state appeals court has ruled.

In a significant victory for environmentalists and biologists who support the "no-fishing zones" designed to restore declining ocean species, the Fourth District Court of Appeal late Monday turned back a challenge by the Coastside Fishing Club, based in Martinez. The group had sued, arguing that the rules went too far and violated state law.

"We're very heartened. It's really good news for the future of California's coast," said Karen Garrison, co-director of ocean programs at the Natural Resources Defense Council in San Francisco.

From 2007 to 2012, the state Fish and Game Commission set up 124 new reserves along California's 1,100-mile coast from Oregon to Mexico. The reserves ban or limit fishing in roughly 16 percent of state waters from the shoreline out to three miles offshore.

The idea behind marine reserves, which are supported by organizations such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium, is to create national forests of the ocean.

For decades, the government has set catch limits and seasons for salmon, Dungeness crab, rockfish and other species. But the reserves go much further, drawing boundaries where little or no fishing is allowed so that fish, crabs, starfish and other species can recover, then seed larger areas of the ocean with their young.

Fishing groups, however, have generally opposed the rules, saying the state put too many areas off limits, particularly rocky areas along the bottom that provide the best fishing grounds.

"What they did was like saying, 'We're only going to close 8 percent of California to driving, but it's the 8 percent with roads,'" Marc Gorelnik, an attorney for the Coastside Fishing Club, said on Tuesday.

The club, which has about 10,000 members who are recreational fishing enthusiasts, sued in 2010. It challenged the way the state Fish and Game Commission wrote the rules for the "North Central" section of the California coast, stretching from Pigeon Point in San Mateo County north about 150 miles to Point Arena near Mendocino.

In 2009, the commission approved new rules that banned or limited commercial and recreational fishing in 20 percent of state waters in the area. The rules took effect a year later.

The Coastside Fishing Club sued. It lost in Superior Court in San Diego, then fell short again on appeal Monday.

"Considering the enormous investment of time and effort by so many that went into their creation, we are loathe to hold the North Central Coast regulations invalid and undo the arduous process that resulted in their adoption absent a compelling reason to do so," Associate Justice Terry O'Rourke of the San Diego-based Fourth District Court of Appeal wrote in a published opinion.

Gorelnik said the Coastside Fishing Club has not yet decided whether to appeal to the state Supreme Court.

He said the organization supports healthy oceans and plans to release 160,000 juvenile hatchery chinook salmon off Half Moon Bay this month.

"The threats to the ocean are not coming from recreational hook-and-line fishermen, but we've been an easy target," he said. "We feel that the closures have not been adequately justified and effort has gone there that perhaps should have gone to more significant environmental threats, including pollution, sewage spills, agricultural runoff, and large diversions of water from the Delta."

But Garrison, of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said that marine reserves are a proven tool for restoring the health of declining fish species.

She noted that in February a group of scientists published a study showing that populations and sizes of several key species of fish, such as rockfish and lingcod, along with starfish, urchins, crabs and other sea life, have increased more in number and abundance in the protected areas established in 2007 between San Mateo and Santa Barbara counties than in unprotected ocean areas nearby.

"Protected areas are working," she said. "People are engaged and excited about them. Now the legal win makes them very solid."

Six years after California put in place the nation's most expansive network of marine reserves -- a controversial experiment aimed at bringing back crashing populations of fish and other ocean species by creating dozens of "no-fishing zones" along the coast -- the effort appears to be working.

In the first major study of its kind, scientists have found that populations and sizes of several key species of fish, along with starfish, urchins, crabs and other sea life, have increased more in the protected areas established in 2007 between San Mateo and Santa Barbara counties than in unprotected ocean areas nearby.

Researchers cautioned that years of additional study are needed, noting that in some areas there was little or no difference. But overall, they said, the trends are encouraging -- a key finding because California's marine protected areas are being closely watched by other states and countries as a possible solution to improving the health of the world's oceans.

"So far, so good," said Mark Carr, a professor of marine biology at UC Santa Cruz.

The 29 zones ban fishing over roughly 94 square miles and limit it in 110 additional square miles -- a combined area more than four times as large as San Francisco -- between Pigeon Point, south of Half Moon Bay, and Point Conception, near Lompoc.

The areas make up about 18 percent of state waters out to three miles. Most fishermen opposed them, turning out in large numbers at public meetings to voice concerns. But scientists and policy makers who predicted they would act as nurseries for more and larger fish appear to be vindicated.

"It is fair for people to feel encouraged and optimistic," said Fred Keeley, a former Monterey Bay state assemblyman who co-authored the 1999 law that required the zones to be set up. "It is a more holistic, ecosystem-wide strategy to protect species. Species don't exist in vacuums. They exist in ecosystems."

The report, written by prominent California marine scientists, was released Wednesday to coincide with a three-day conference of marine biologists, fishermen and policy makers in Monterey called the "State of the Coast Symposium." Open to the public, the event is hosted by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, California Ocean Science Trust and others.

The idea behind marine reserves, which are supported by organizations such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium, is to create national forests of the ocean. Rather than simply having the government set catch limits and seasons for salmon, Dungeness crab, rockfish and other species, as has been the policy for decades, the concept is to draw boundaries where little or no fishing is allowed so fish, plants, crabs, starfish and other species can recover over decades, then seed larger areas of the ocean with their young.

After the state Fish and Game Commission held hearings and approved the rules for the Central Coast in 2007, it wrote similar rules for the rest of California's 1,100-mile coastline. The most recent ones, which took effect in December, extend from Mendocino to the Oregon border.Fishing groups say they are still uncomfortable with the reserves.

"There have been economic losses to fishermen," said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations in San Francisco. "A lot of these were unnecessary. They could have been done more carefully."

Grader said that while many fishermen have moved to different waters, some -- particularly those who focus on smaller fisheries like spot prawns -- have gone out of business because of the fishing limits.

The new study showed a 70 percent decline in the number of commercial fishermen off California's central coast from 1992 to 2011.

Some of that drop is attributed to specific crashes in fish populations, including the sharp decline in salmon that led federal and state officials to prohibit all salmon fishing off California in 2008 and 2009. Despite that 70 percent decline, however, the total amount of fish commercially caught in the area has increased by roughly 50 percent since 1992, a trend driven by increases in the catch of squid and several other species.

California's central coast is one of the world's most spectacular ocean areas. Famed for its kelp forests, rocky tide pools, sea otters, great white sharks and plunging marine canyons, the area is home to 26 species of marine mammals, 94 species of seabirds, four species of sea turtles and 340 types of fish.

Researchers who worked on this week's report spent years scuba diving, taking video from unmanned and manned submarines, walking miles of tide pool areas, and using high-tech imaging devices to make detailed images of the ocean bottom. They also worked with volunteer groups.

Scientists who participated came from UC Santa Cruz, Moss Landing Marine Labs, Cal Poly, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, CSU Monterey Bay, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.

Among their findings:

In kelp forests, a range of economically important fish species, including cabezon, lingcod and black rockfish, increased in abundance in marine protected areas compared with similar locations outside the areas from 2007 to 2012. Black rockfish, grass rockfish, cabezon and lingcod showed the largest increases.

Copper rockfish, rubberlip sea perch and yellowtail sea perch did worse in marine protected areas, however, than the unprotected areas.

Seven of 10 species of rockfish studied at Año Nuevo, Point Lobos, Piedras Blancas and Point Buchon were found to be larger in size inside the protected areas than outside. Larger fish tend to be older and have more larvae.

]]>sean@humboldtbaykeeper.org (Paul Rogers, San Jose Mercury News)In the NewsFri, 05 Apr 2013 17:54:10 +0000Comments Due April 10 to Inform North Coast MPA Baseline Monitoring RFPhttp://humboldtbaykeeper.org/marine-life-protection-act/57-meetings-and-public-input/748-comments-due-april-10-to-inform-north-coast-mpa-baseline-monitoring-rfp.html
http://humboldtbaykeeper.org/marine-life-protection-act/57-meetings-and-public-input/748-comments-due-april-10-to-inform-north-coast-mpa-baseline-monitoring-rfp.htmlThe draft North Coast MPA Baseline Program Request for Proposals (RFP) is available for one more week; public comment is encouraged!

OAKLAND, CA – Members of the North Coast community are invited to provide public comment on the draft North Coast MPA Baseline Program RFP, which was released on March 27, 2013. Comments will be accepted for one more week, through April 10, 2013 and can be submitted via mail, email, and online form. “I encourage the North Coast community to participate in the public comment period to help ensure that MPA monitoring reflects local priorities,” said Tess Freidenburg, Senior Scientist with the California Ocean Science Trust.

In 2012, a network of 20 MPAs and 7 special closures was adopted by the California Fish and Game Commission in state waters from the California/Oregon border to Alder Creek, neat Point Arena. The first step in monitoring is the Baseline Program, which establishes a benchmark against which future performance can be measured and documents any initial changes. The draft RFP details proposal requirements for baseline MPA monitoring in the region.

WHO: The Baseline Program is a collaborative effort among California Ocean Science Trust’s MPA Monitoring Enterprise, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, California Ocean Protection Council (OPC), and California Sea Grant. The OPC has authorized $4,000,000 to support the Baseline Program.

WHAT: The draft RFP can be downloaded as a PDF file from OceanSpaces.org; hard copies can be found at a number of locations throughout the North Coast region.

Written comments on the draft RFP are requested by 5:00pm PST on April 10. Comments may be submitted via the following methods:

The map above (click HERE) shows the location and dimensions of the new marine protected areas that will go into effect next Wednesday, Dec. 19. These “underwater parks” are the result of a long and at times contentious process, though stakeholders here on the north coast managed to reach consensus on where the protected areas should be located. (No other region in the state managed that feat.)

As with state parks, the marine protected areas are designed to preserve precious and sensitive ecosystems from human disturbance.

On December 19, Californians will celebrate the grand opening of a series of underwater parks — also called marine protected areas — that aim to create a more sustainable future for the north coast region’s coastal economy and environment. They complete a statewide network of havens that make California a national leader in ocean conservation.

“The ocean is at the heart of California’s life, culture and economy,” said Jennifer Savage, Ocean Conservancy’s north coast program coordinator. “This milestone is important for all Californians and ocean users, as it safeguards these special coastal places and resources now and for generations to come.”

The 19 underwater parks span from just south of Fort Bragg up to the Oregon border, covering approximately 137 square miles, or 13 percent of the region. They include Pyramid Point’s rugged coastline; Point St. George Reef, home to the second largest nesting seabird colony south of Alaska; and waters at the mouth of waterways like Ten Mile River that are critical for salmon and steelhead populations.

The protected areas were created through the landmark Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) of 1999. …

“It took over a decade — and legions of citizens putting heart and soul into the effort — to get to this point. The result is phenomenal: a necklace of protected underwater gems encompassing our whole coastline,” said Karen Garrison of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “California finally has a system of Yosemites in the sea.”

The network protects an average of nearly 16 percent of California waters, an impressive accomplishment considering that only 1.6 percent of the world’s oceans are afforded similar protections.

In the north coast, local fishermen, divers, tribes, business owners and conservationists put aside their differences and came together to design the marine protected areas and promote sustainable uses, from fishing and gathering to diving and kayaking. Traditional non-commercial tribal uses will continue with no additional restrictions in the 13 State Marine Conservation Areas, in which limited recreational and commercial fishing will also be allowed.

“We thank the Creator, and are very pleased that North Coast residents stood in solidarity with the tribes,” said Priscilla Hunter, chairwoman of the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council. “With the new protections and our people’s careful continued stewardship, future generations will be able to live our tribal traditions and enjoy the ocean’s gifts.”

The Sinkyone Council is a consortium of 10 federally recognized tribes based in Mendocino and Lake Counties that retain cultural and ancestral connections to the coast and marine waters of Mendocino and southern Humboldt. Along with more than 20 tribes, the Council was actively involved in the North Coast’s MLPA process.

Many of the 19 new protected areas are located adjacent to public beaches and state parks, creating great opportunities for education, research, and recreation. They allow a wide range of recreational uses such as swimming, surfing, kayaking and wildlife viewing but are protected from some or all harvest of ocean life to allow ecosystems to thrive.

Scientific studies show that well designed marine protected areas have a greater diversity of species, making them more resilient, and more and bigger fish and other sea creatures, relative to fished areas in similar habitat. Because big fish have more and healthier young, these areas can be engines of productivity.

]]>sean@humboldtbaykeeper.org (Ryan Burns, North Coast Journal Blogthing)In the NewsMon, 17 Dec 2012 03:35:19 +0000California's North Coast Marine Protected Areas Become Effective Dec. 19http://humboldtbaykeeper.org/marine-life-protection-act/56-in-the-news/695-californias-north-coast-marine-protected-areas-become-effective-december-19.html
http://humboldtbaykeeper.org/marine-life-protection-act/56-in-the-news/695-californias-north-coast-marine-protected-areas-become-effective-december-19.htmlNineteen additional marine protected areas (MPAs) will become effective next month off the northern California coast, stretching northward from Point Arena to the Oregon border, completing the statewide network of MPAs, according to the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG).

]]>sean@humboldtbaykeeper.org (Jim Hendricks Sport, Fishing Magazine)In the NewsThu, 29 Nov 2012 20:41:32 +0000MPA Monitoring Enterprise "Meet & Greet" Aug. 15, 5-7 pmhttp://humboldtbaykeeper.org/marine-life-protection-act/57-meetings-and-public-input/644-mpa-monitoring-enterprise-qmeet-a-greetq-aug-15-5-7-pm.html
http://humboldtbaykeeper.org/marine-life-protection-act/57-meetings-and-public-input/644-mpa-monitoring-enterprise-qmeet-a-greetq-aug-15-5-7-pm.htmlThe MPA Monitoring Enterprise will hold an informal gathering at the Humboldt Bay Aquatic Center at 921 Waterfront Drive in Eureka on August 15, from 5 to 7 pm.
]]>sean@humboldtbaykeeper.org (Administrator)Meetings and Public InputWed, 08 Aug 2012 04:40:41 +0000North Coast Marine Protected Areas Adopted http://humboldtbaykeeper.org/marine-life-protection-act/56-in-the-news/614-north-coast-marine-protected-areas-adopted-.html
http://humboldtbaykeeper.org/marine-life-protection-act/56-in-the-news/614-north-coast-marine-protected-areas-adopted-.htmlOn June 6, the Fish and Game Commission met in Eureka to adopt the final marine protected areas on the North Coast. We are very pleased to announce that the Commission unanimously adopted the environmental impact report and ALL the recommendations from the unified proposal submitted by local environmentalists, fishermen, tribal representatives and recreational ocean users. This adoption means that the all the work by Humboldt Baykeeper and our community will become law, and our precious ocean resources will be protected for future generations. We’ll share maps of the ocean parks as soon as the Department of Fish and Game finalizes the appropriate documents. Thank you for your support and patience through this (long) process - all our hard work paid off!]]>sean@humboldtbaykeeper.org (Administrator)In the NewsFri, 08 Jun 2012 23:22:22 +0000Marine Protected Areas Adopted http://humboldtbaykeeper.org/marine-life-protection-act/56-in-the-news/613-marine-protected-areas-adopted-.html
http://humboldtbaykeeper.org/marine-life-protection-act/56-in-the-news/613-marine-protected-areas-adopted-.html6/8/12

Do rockfish breathe sighs of relief? No? How about shorebirds? Or sea lions? Perhaps razor clams? (How do those things even breathe?)

Okay, well, whether or not they know it, marine life on the North Coast will now enjoy protection in a new network of underwater parks.Yesterday, in a conference room at the Eureka Red Lion, the Fish and Game Commission voted to adopt a network of marine protected areas that, remarkably, had been agreed upon by a diverse group of local stakeholders, including environmentalists, fishermen, scientists, native tribes and government officials.

These protected areas were created through the state’s 1999 Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA), a public/private initiative to limit or restrict fishing and gathering in sensitive areas. The North Coast Study Region, which stretches from Mendocino County’s Alder Creek up to the Oregon border, was the only section of the state in which stakeholders reached a consensus on where these safe zones should be located. In the photo above, Humboldt Baykeeper Director Beth Werner discusses one of these areas, located in South Humboldt Bay.

The California Fish and Game Commission approved pro­posals for a series of marine protection areas along the North Coast on Wednesday.

Audubon California seabird conservation coordinator Anna Weinstein called the decision historic and said it was the final piece in a network of protected areas for marine life. “We’re especially pleased because it’s such a key part of the wild feel and legacy of this place,” Weinstein said.

The MLPA restricts or eliminates fishing and gathering in a variety of marine habitats in state waters, creating a network of marine protected areas along the 1,100-mile California coastline. A public-private initiative has brought the process to several other regions along the coast, but only on the North Coast were locals able to agree on a single proposal.

Weinstein said the decision complemented the efforts of the stakeholders in the regions where MPAs were enacted and that the decision had the support of most of the fishing and tribal communities.

Various tribes challenged the north coast plan, saying it impinged on their historic fishing practices. Under the approved plan, tribes that provided records of their historic fishing practices were exempted from some restrictions.

Ocean Conservancy North Coast Coordinator Jennifer Savage said she felt consistent support through the develop­ment process, but was unsure how the commission would decide.

“That they adopted every­thing as the stakeholders designed it was phenomenal,” Savage said.

She said the decision showed that the community buy-in of the project influ­enced in the commission.

Weinstein said Fish and Game Commissioner Richard Rogers was moved to tears during the decision, which took place at the Eureka Red Lion on Wednesday after­noon. She said 31 people spoke during public comment to influence the final shape and establishment of the MPAs.

The commission will now work with the Department of Fish and Game — who will enforce restrictions in the MPAs — to create a timeline of when the law will go into effect.

According to a Department of Fish and Game press release, the North Coast MPA process involved 75 meetings over three years.

Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro (D-Arcata) spoke at the meeting in favor of the stakeholder-designed MPA plan.

“It’s unanimous: We on the North Coast all support pro­tecting our ocean fishery resources, and we highly value sustainable commer­cial, recreational and tradi­tional harvests,” Chesbro said in a press release.

Protected areas include South Cape Mendocino, Pyramid Point near the Ore­gon border and part of Hum­boldt Bay.

A map of the state’s pro­tected areas can be found online at www.caloceans.org.

Protecting our marine wildlife and vegetation...The big discussion brought Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro to Eureka from Sacramento today to discuss the North Coast’s Marine protected area. The Fish and Game Commission met with not only Mr. Chesbro but also people of the community willing to voice their arguments before a decision is made that will affect those that use the marine ecosystem.

The California Marine Protection Act requires the development of marine life protected areas. Regional plans have been adopted throughout the state. The north coast is the last to be developed.

That proposal encompasses all parties affected by the final decision. Commercial fisherman, sports fisherman, Native-American tribes, the environmental community as well as local governments managed to come together and come up with an integral regional proposal.

This afternoon, the Fish and Game Commission reached a unanimous decision. The Unified Array Proposal, which was suggested by the North Coast Stakeholders, will be adopted. The north coast MPA is expected to go into effect by January of 2013.